Again, it feels sort of silly to recap a historical/biographical film, but here goes nothing:
Young Malcom Little loses his father in a vicious attack by the Klan and his stripped from his mother by the system. Though a smart kid, he grows up to become a hustler and a thief, until he is sent to jail. There, he discovers the Nation of Islam and becomes a devout practitioner of that brand of Islam. Outside of prison, he adopts the surname “X”, begins preaching for the NOI, meets his future wife, and gradually soars to a very public, senior leadership role within the organization. With growing fear that Malcom’s public persona was eclipsing the NOI and his inflammatory statement on JFK’s assassination, the NOI turns their back on Malcom. Malcom travels to Mecca on pilgrimage and comes back with an altered philosophy, which he began to share publicly. This drives the NOI to attack Malcom and his family; the story concludes with Malcom’s assassination.
I think it’s impossible to speak of this film in only the context of its technical components, but I’d like to start there. In a film full of terrific, believable, attention-grabbing performances, Denzel, Angela Bassett, and Albert Hall reigned supreme. I thought the writing was excellent and the extra-story conclusion caught me off guard in a good way.
If opening titles with a burning American flag was any indication, I believe this film is meant to be challenging for some audiences. To start, if my high school history class’s “oh, and Malcom X was there too” version of the Civil Rights movement is any indication, Malcom has a complicated legacy in this country. The story lays bare violent and systemic racism in America and in many ways, Malcom’s proposed solutions to a racist America, in life and in the film, don’t easily mesh with modern, self-congratulatory views on integration and peaceful resistance. I found some of these views difficult to reconcile with; others have gone as far as to call him a racist.
And yet, the film didn’t impress me for its boldness but for its nuance. It balanced between Malcom’s personal and public lives and showed his tremendous transformation over time. Malcom’s story in this film demonstrates the constant exchange we have with the world around us—how we are influenced by our environment, how we respond to it, how our response can change the world, and how those changes can influence us yet again. Malcom was smart. And he was as much a leader and a bold talker as he was a listener and a student. He was a man.